Goodan Ranch community center nearly finished

POWAY -- A new visitors center at Goodan Ranch/Sycamore Canyon
Open Space Preserve is almost finished, prompting county parks
officials and preserve volunteers to start planning the displays
that will go inside the $1.5 million building.

With that in mind, county officials and the nonprofit Friends of
Goodan Ranch have put out a call for photographs of a historical
stone ranch house that stood on the property for about 70 years,
and the area around it. The house was destroyed in the 2003 Cedar
fire.

County officials had struggled over the question of whether they
should try to restore the building before deciding last year that
the house should be replaced with a new structure. The project
broke ground in September.

On Thursday, Charley Marchesano, chief of parks development for
the county and the person overseeing the building's construction,
said the contractor carrying out the work is down to the final
items on a county checklist. That means the visitors center should
be ready to receive its first visitors this fall, he added.

"We haven't worked out the date yet," Marchesano said. "But
we're working with the Friends to set up exhibits."

Accessible off the southern end of Sycamore Canyon Road in the
southeast corner of Poway, Goodan Ranch sits inside Sycamore Canyon
Open Space Preserve. The park is jointly owned by the county and
the cities of Poway and Santee.

The ranch was built in the 1930s and included the stone house, a
large barn and several outbuildings. Recent years saw rangers
stationed in the preserve using the ranch house as their
headquarters.

That changed when the fast-moving Cedar fire swept through the
area in October 2003, nearly burning the ranch house to the ground.
Officials with the county, which manages the property, gave up the
idea of rebuilding the house after structural engineers said the
project would be too costly.

The now-fenced ruins stand as a memorial to the ranch house.

The new visitors center is a short distance away. The
3,200-square-foot, sage-green building includes ranger offices, an
exhibit area, a meeting room and public restrooms.

Marchesano said the new structure is an environmentally friendly
building -- its rooftop photovoltaic panels will generate much of
the building's energy. Recycled construction materials, an indirect
cooling system, and energy-efficient doors and windows are some of
the building's other environmentally friendly features, he
said.

Friends President Carol Crafts said those involved in the quest
for photos hope to collect enough images to create an educational
video about the ranch house. The video will play on a continuous
loop in the new building's exhibit area and show visitors what the
historical house looked like, she said.

Photos can be mailed to Cailin Hunsaker, county district park
manager, San Diego County Parks and Recreation, 9150 Chesapeake
Drive, Suite 200, San Diego, CA 92123.